HARMONIZING THE MAJOR SCALE

The secret to improvisation can be very simple. If you have AC#E, or FAC, GBD, EG#B. The ability to successfully play lead lines over chord progressions is knowing diatonic triads.

Composers and arrangers have simple rules to aid them in writing harmony and to understand these rules will enable you to easily determine which chords belong to each key.

The Major Scale is harmonized by creating three note chords over each degree of the scale.

I explained earlier that the chord triad is created by stacking notes in intervals of a third. The triad produces major and minor chords. If we continue stacking thirds to extend each chords tonality, it is possible to harmonize the scale with four note chords. A four note chord, stacking four third intervals, creates seventh chords. Each chord contains only notes of the parent scale and is said to be diatonic to the key of which the scale is written. This sequence of chords is known as diatonic seventh chords.